Sometimes, though, it can be challenging to find board games suitable for younger kids. Their attention spans are short. Their hand-eye-coordination is still developing. And they can’t always follow along with complex rules. So to make the shopping a little easier, here are some of my favourite board games for kids under five.

**There are no affiliate products in this post — just fun games we love to play!**Continue reading →

Christmas is the only time of year that my house gets decorated from floorboards to ceiling lights; the hours spent hanging lights and tinsel are well worth it. There’s just something about Christmas decorations that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside (perhaps partially due to the amount of glitter that I end up inhaling off of dollarstore tree ornaments?)

But with shiny tinsel on the tree, faux-fir branches scattered around the house, and cranberry scented candles shimmering on the table, there’s one prime decorating area that often gets overlooked – the walls!

So if you’re looking for a bit more holiday cheer, here are SIX quick ideas for your Christmas wall decor this season:

I was seven months pregnant when I lost my first child. The doctors hurriedly pulled him from my stomach but they found no heartbeat, no breath. He was declared stillborn.

My second pregnancy ended quickly. I barely made it to the eight week mark when the doctors confirmed what my body had already told me – it was over. They told me I had “experienced a miscarriage.”

When you look at their definitions on paper, a miscarriage and a stillbirth are essentially the same thing. Both involve the loss of a beautiful baby in utero. A miscarriage occurs before 20 weeks of pregnancy, a stillbirth occurs after 20 weeks.* Both types of loss involve the pain of losing a child; and both leave a mother with empty arms and crushed dreams.

And yet, there’s no denying that these are two very different experiences.

Some of my favourite childhood memories are the days spent browning on a lawn chair beside the lake, soaking up novel after novel. I used to dream of owning a “Beauty and the Beast” type library with swinging ladders and gleaming, spiral staircases – who needs a house, when you can nest happily amongst paperbacks?